More than 1,000 govt websites hacked in past 3 years

As per the information revealed by the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), more than 1,000 government websites belonging to various ministries and departments have faced serious security issues due to hacking in last three years.

According to the CERT-In, around 1030 government websites were hacked, in terms of exact numbers 303, 308, 371 and 48 government websites were hacked in 2010, 2011, 2012 and up to March 2013, respectively.

The government has mandated hosting of government websites on secure infrastructure service provider or on National Informatics Centre, Education and Research Network. With this proper audit prior hosting of a new government websites and applications had also been made mandatory from past few years by the authorities.

Graph: Number of Indian Govt Websites Hacked vs Year

But according to a report, of about 7,000 government websites, only 3,192 have been audited for information technology (IT) security, while 3,556 others are being audited. Data even shows that 50% of the total government websites in India are vulnerable to data theft, hacking and cyber terrorism.

There are about 1231 government websites in India that have been hacked in last 4 years, with most of the attacks being generated from countries like Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, etc.

Cybersecurity has become one of the major concern for the Indian Government, not for the government websites but other as well. Government has been trying to prevent these attack and one of their measure includes setting up of National cyber security architecture. It will involve monitoring, certification and assurance of India’s networks by designated agencies and bodies in accordance with the law.